News: October 2009 Archives

The Business Insider recently published a bar graph comparing the internet activities of United States of users with those of Chinese users. While some activities, like pursuing an online education or watching online video (one in the same, really), were statistically similar between the two counties, other activities were far more common in one country than the other, revealing some fundamental differences in Chinese and American tendencies.

• The WSJ has a summary of the pajama controversy in the wake of Expo city "improvements". Our take: Who cares? Let Shanghai people wear their damn pajamas. It'll finally lend some authenticity to this whole show already. [WSJ]
• Oh joy of joys! The Haunted House of Suzhou Creek: Shanghai Nightmare is staying open for 8 days past Halloween. In case you wanted to extend the fun. [ChinaTravel]
• Adam Minter's had quite a week. First he ran into one of the most honestly named Shanghai restaurants we've ever seen pictures of: Hong Kong Gimmick. [Shanghai Scrap]

• Black Future: The coal bosses of Shanxi are tired of being the government's whipping boys [Forbes] "One of the most reviled and reclusive villains in the Chinese economy has been the coal mine boss. The archetypal robber baron of the Chinese Gilded Age, he has been caricatured as ruthless, greedy, corrupt and uncivilized. Now the coal mine boss is casting himself as a human rights case. The government of China's coal-rich Shanxi Province, southwest of Beijing, is trying to drive almost all private mine owners out of business, forcing more than 1,500 mines to shut down or sell out to state-owned enterprises at prices so low, coal bosses say, that some may go bankrupt."
• Google's Eric Schmidt on What the Web Will Look Like in 5 Years [Read Write Web] "Google CEO Eric Schmidt envisions a radically changed internet five years from now: dominated by Chinese-language and social media content, delivered over super-fast bandwidth in real time."
• The French Connection’s China Connection [WSJ] "A French court Tuesday sentenced two businessmen convicted in the arms-for-oil “Angolagate” scandal that implicated 42 defendants including top politicians, civil servants and even the son of late Socialist President Francois Mitterrand. One of the two, and a chief defendant in the case, is Pierre Falcone, who’s now in jail pending an appeal on the charges he helped arrange shipments of $790 million worth of weapons to Angola in the mid-1990s."

Plagiarism is sad to see, especially when it's of art, and exceptionally when it's too blatant to chalk up to "artistic inspiration". Danwei has a story on a painting called "When I Was Young" by Li Yueliang, an artist from Zhejiang province, which was on display in Jinan at the National Games.

If you were President Obama, what's the best possible news you could hear from Hu Jintao during your upcoming visit in November? That the Chinese military will agree to keep their agreement to work more closely with the US military? That recent threats to potentially raise tariffs on US automakers were just a big joke? Or were you thinking something perhaps...a bit more...magical?

Seems like taxis in Shanghai have been getting a whole lot of attention lately. Chinese in-taxi media company, Touchmedia, is launching an interactive map in more than 10,000 taxis around Shanghai next month, all in preparation for next year's Expo.

• Once seen as spies, Taiwan eases China media curbs [Reuters] "Taiwan has relaxed rules for Chinese media, long regarded as spy organizations for the Communist government, as relations warm between the two long-time political rivals, officials said on Wednesday. Effective immediately, Chinese media, which include state-run giants such as Xinhua News Agency and China Central Television, can increase staff from two to five people apiece and travel to any part of Taiwan or its outlying islands, officials said."
• Chengdu traffic gives rise to new profession: taxi chasing [GoChengdoo] "We've written before about how frustrating catching a taxi in Chengdu has become in the last few years. And although 800 cabs were allegedly added to Chengdu's streets last month, it doesn't seem to be getting any easier. But now help is on the way, in the form of a "chubby figure" who chases down cabs for passengers, collecting 2 RMB each time."
• In modern China, no place for totalitarian anthems [China Media Project] "How should we best understand the extravagance that marked China’s recent National Day celebrations? In the wake of the pomp and circumstance, a good friend of mine summed it up with a single phrase: “Four portraits and four anthems.” By portraits he was referring of course to the four massive portraits of state leaders - Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao - that gazed over the celebration."

Back when we first heard the story of ladies-of-the-night feeding drugged candy to expat men in order to steal their things, we squealed in schadenfreudetastic glee. Little did we know that there was an even more salacious twist yet to come: The ladies were actually men!

Twenty four provinces and municipalities of China unveiled their plans for the Expo at a meeting yesterday. Now we're sure that each province is going to try and outdo each other, but Shaanxi seems to have already taken the cake: they're building imperial robots!

• No worries about getting the runs while exploring the World Expo - Shanghai has been making extensive efforts to ensure that we are never far from a toilet. The city has installed toilets about every 200 meters for the estimated 400,000 daily visitors expected each day. In addition, sophisticated rubbish collection systems will help us to forget we're in a Chinese city. [Shanghai Daily]
• Looking for something culturally stimulating this week? The Tony award winning Soul of Shaolin tells the story of Hui Guang, a son and his mother. The show is a stunning display of Wushu Kung Fu that is sure to astound you. The performance starts this Thursday at the Shanghai Theatre Academy. [Smart Shanghai]
• China is planning on forming an organization of top universities called the C9 and Shanghai's very own Fudan University and Shanghai JiaoTong University will join with other prestigious schools across the nation in a Chinese "Ivy League". We wonder if they're copying this tradition for better education opportunities for their students or to increase elitism? [People's Daily]

One day after announcing the creation of a new regulation team to investigate police practices in arresting illegal taxi drivers, the Pudong New Area District government officially cleared Sun Zhongjie of all charges. Having garnered much attention from the Chinese media and public at large for severing his finger to prove his innocence, Sun was ecstatic to hear of his exoneration.

• China's internet 'spin doctors' [BBC] China is using an increasing number of paid "internet commentators" in a sophisticated attempt to control public opinion. These commentators are used by government departments to scour the internet for bad news - and then negate it. They post comments on websites and forums that spin bad news into good in an attempt to shape public opinion.
• Why Western Media Mistakes Matter [ChinaGeeks] Every time we post something critical of a story in the Western media — which, for the record, isn’t that often, about 20 posts of our total 197 — this question gets asked. Yesterday it was commenter Hemulen, who phrased it thusly: "I don’t understand why you spend so much time criticizing Western media for not getting everything exactly right and being 100 per cent accurate." It’s a valid question, or at least, one to which the answer might not be readily apparent. After all, the Chinese media routinely commits graver ethical sins as a matter of policy. Shouldn’t we be going after them, instead?
• HIV prostitute' blog hoax zooms on cyber-privacy [China Daily] "A blog that falsely proclaimed that a Hebei province woman is HIV positive was a hoax by an ex-boyfriend intent upon revenge - and a case study into the debate about people's right of privacy in cyberspace. The woman, Yan Deli, a native in Hebei province, tested negative for HIV/AIDS Monday by the local disease control center. Police of Rongcheng county in Hebei province said the blog with indecent photos and words was written by Yan's ex-lover surnamed Yang, in a bid to get revenge on Yan. Yan met Yang in Beijing."

• China's rivers of cash flowing wrong way [Sydney Morning Herald] "On Thursday, the National Bureau of Statistics spokesman Li Xiaochao had been comfortably batting away curly questions from the international media about what lay beneath China's spectacular headline GDP growth of 8.9 per cent through the year. But one question from Shanghai's Oriental Post tied him hopelessly in knots: "What is the amount and growth rate of consumption expenditure for government administration, compared with last year?" The journalist was asking how much of China's spectacular retail sales growth - 17 per cent after adjusting for falls in prices - was simply the bureaucracy taking advantage of the fiscal stimulus to spend more money on itself."
• Salute All Cars, Kids. It’s a Rule in China [NY Times] "All the students at Luolang Elementary School, a yellow-and-orange concrete structure off a winding mountain road in southern China, know the key rules: Do not run in the halls. Take your seat before the bell rings. Raise your hand to ask a question. And oh, yes: Salute every passing car on your way to and from school."
• China and America: The odd couple [The Economist] "IT HAS become a tedious tradition for Westerners dealing with China to garnish their speeches with wisdom from the Chinese classics. Barack Obama, addressing Chinese and American leaders in July, used not just a banal quotation from Mencius, a Confucian sage, but a punchier one from Yao Ming, a Chinese basketball player: “No matter whether you are new or an old team member, you need time to adjust to one another.” Though it is 30 years since the two countries re-established diplomatic ties severed by the Communist takeover, both sides still badly need to adjust…"

He may have lost a digit but Liu Yan-Zhou Sun, the man who chopped off his own finger to prove to the local authorities that he is not a black cab, has not necessarily lost his credibility as an upstanding citizen.

• China's 8.9% Growth? No Way [Forbes]"On Oct. 22, Beijing announced that gross domestic product grew by 8.9% in the third quarter of 2009 compared with the corresponding period last year. The National Bureau of Statistics also reported that growth for the first three quarters was up 7.7%. How could it not have been? Since last November, Beijing has spent perhaps as much as $900 billion-from its own funds as well as those of the larger state banks-to jump start its $4.3 trillion economy. No government can disburse that amount of cash without creating some economic activity."
• China's push for oil in Gulf of Mexico puts U.S. in awkward spot [LA Times]"China's push to enter U.S. turf comes four years after CNOOC's $18.5-billion bid to buy Unocal Corp. was scuttled by Congress on national security grounds. The El Segundo oil firm eventually merged with Chevron Corp. of San Ramon. Whether CNOOC's second attempt to lock up U.S. petroleum assets will trigger a similar political backlash remains to be seen. The sour U.S. economy and the need for Washington and Beijing to cooperate on potentially larger issues could mute any outcry."
• The story of China Incorporated [China Daily] "Twenty-five years ago, Megatrends was a must-read for any Chinese who was keen to know about the world - not just the world as it was, but the world that would be. And that included higher officials who were unaccustomed to foreign theorizing other than that by Marx and Lenin. By some estimate, the book sold some 20 million copies in China. The original English version was published two years earlier, in 1982, and stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for two years. Last month, John Naisbitt, the author of Megatrends, came out with China's Megatrends. This time, the Chinese edition debuted before the English original."
• Voices of Power Transcript: Chris Lu [Washington Post] "Chris Lu has known President Obama since they attended Harvard Law School together, but they cemented their friendship when Obama hired him in 2004 for his Senate staff. He's the Cabinet secretary — a title that belies an intense assignment as chief intermediary between the White House and the federal agencies. On a daily basis, his job is not only to convey the president's views and expectations to all the department heads and keep them on message, but also to help them resolve their issues with the White House. The son of Chinese immigrants, Lu is one of the highest-ranking Asian Americans in the administration. "
• A special report on China and America: : The price of cleanliness [The Economist] "The Beijing authorities built Taiyanggong to impress the world in the run-up to the Olympic games which opened in the city in August 2008—on the same day that America opened a new embassy in Beijing (heated, American officials say proudly, by Taiyanggong). Some 5,000 workers toiled night and day to deliver on the Chinese government’s promise to provide an environmentally friendly power source for the games. Taiyanggong was connected to the grid with nearly eight months to spare…Now the power station’s owners, led by a municipal state-owned company, are struggling to make it work financially. "
• Mandarin Eclipses Cantonese, Changing the Sound of Chinatown [NYTimes] "He grew up playing in the narrow, crowded streets of Manhattan’s Chinatown. He has lived and worked there for all his 61 years. But as Wee Wong walks the neighborhood these days, he cannot understand half the Chinese conversations he hears. Cantonese, a dialect from southern China that has dominated the Chinatowns of North America for decades, is being rapidly swept aside by Mandarin, the national language of China and the lingua franca of most of the latest Chinese immigrants."
  Continue reading "Todays links: China's Megatrends, Chris Lu, and Taiyanggong"

The Press Freedom Index, an annual ranking of countries by Reporters Without Borders about their press freedom records, was published recently. Surprise surprise, China ranks one of the lowest on the list.

• Oooh, according to this photo, the Bund face-lift is finally nearing completion. Thank goodness - we're sick of all the construction dust around what once was the prettiest riverside scenic spot ever. [Shanghai Daily]
• Six months after the previous fashion week, Shanghai's now hosting another for Spring and Summer collections. It'll go on from October 29th to November 7th October 21st to October 27th. [SIFC]
• Shanghai Media Group, the conglomerate responsible for all those taxi and subway television ads, will be split into two parts - Shanghai Radio & TV (news, tech, public broadcast) and Shanghai Oriental Media Group (ads, production, distribution and market investment). You know, for all of you who care about this kind of stuff. [China Knowledge]

• Growing Chinese Military Creates Uncertainty: U.S. [Reuters] "The U.S. military needs better dialogue with China to avoid "mistakes and miscalculations" given an unprecedented military expansion stoking uncertainty in the region, top U.S. defense officials said Wednesday."
• Why China Isn't Ready to Lead [The Wall Street Journal] "Chinese decision makers need to realize that global economic leadership does not stem only from a large cash hoard. In the long run, a credible respect for property rights and unbiased contract enforcement will draw a larger share of global investors into the Chinese economic sphere."
• Gang crackdown, lurid mob trials transfix China [Associated Press] "After she refused a corrupt cop's demand that she turn her teahouse into an illegal casino, three thugs beat Chen Yanling with electric batons, sending her to the hospital for nearly a month. Chen is now getting some vicarious revenge, joining the throngs outside a courthouse where modern-day China's biggest, most lurid mob trials are under way. The trials are exposing sordid, deep-seated connections between organized crime and corrupt officials and police in the central mega-city of Chongqing, once known as Chungking."

We always thought it looked kind of cool in old Yakuza/Triad gang movies, but when we actually hear about people cutting off their own fingers to prove a point, we're a little more disturbed than excited. A driver was caught in one of Shanghai's recent black cab dragnets, where police officers pretend to hire cars illegally functioning as cabs, and then fine them.

Oh boy, what's news is news (we suppose), but Shanghai Daily still manages to crack us up with its solemn and hard hitting reportage from time to time. Ever litter off a high-rise building just because you can with absolute impunity? It seems that people who live closer to ground level are starting to complain about the steady flow of garbage falling from the sky: terrace-tossers are becoming a serious threat to public safety and sanity. Hit us with a poignant example, Shanghai Daily!

• Disabled shoppers vs. Parkson Department Store [Danwei] "The Fuxingmen Parkson department store in Beijing was host to a piece of performance art yesterday morning. Two cardboard cutouts of blind people, two empty wheelchairs, and a few shoes were arranged outside the entrance to protest an incident at a Parkson store in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province in which an elderly woman in a wheelchair was refused entry. Jiangxi's New Legal Report has been following the case very closely. On October 13, the paper told the story of Ms. Zhang and her wheelchair-bound mother, who were barred from the store on October 8."
• Google Books Settlement: The Chinese Chapter [WSJ] "Google’s (GOOG) troubles in China seem to have taken a new turn as a result of the company’s plan to create a vast digital library of books. The China Written Works Copyright Society (CWWCS) has called on Chinese writers to stand up for their legal rights in the face of Web search giant Google’s proposed book settlement, according to a post published on the official website of Chinese Writers’ Association (CWA)..."
• China accused over ‘missing’ Uighurs [Financial Times] "China has refused to disclose the whereabouts of dozens of Uighur men who “disappeared” after July riots in the western Chinese city of Urumqi, according to Human Rights Watch, with the fate of hundreds more yet to be accounted for. In a report published on Wednesday, the human rights group identified 43 missing Uighurs detained after the riots and said many more members of the Muslim ethnic minority might have been taken away by the authorities."

In case you haven't seen them, ObaMao schwag- shirts, bags, journals, you name it- is all the rage in Beijing. China Daily reported a while back on the entrepreneur whose political mash-up memorabilia (is it still Maomorabilia?) is making splashes on both sides of the pacific. Is it funny, insensitive, confusing, or just good old fashioned marketing? Salon.com draws some pretty funny insights from the shirts:

• Looking for a good laugh this week? Check out ChopSchticks Comedy this Thursday and Friday. Headlined by Dennis Regan (appearances on The Tonight Show and David Letterman) and opening by Ryan Conner this show at Number 5 Bistro promises a hilarious night out. [City Weekend]
• Also appearing in Shanghai is New Zealand comedian Ray Bon Kan (yes, he's bffs with Flight of the Conchords). He'll be at Malones on Thursday at 8pm. Figures one of the few times Shanghai has a bunch of comedians play, they force you to choose between them. [Shanghai Talk]
• Pollution levels were (shockingly) higher than usual, according to recent reports. Apparently for the past 3 days we have experienced poorer air quality than any other time of the year and yet, oddly enough, it doesn't seem to be bothering people like pollution normally does. Perhaps we're all just used to it by now? [Shanghai Daily]

• China opens a new front in Kashmir [Asia Times] "India and China appear to have opened a new front - Kashmir - in their ongoing war of words. While India has warned China against involvement in projects in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Beijing seems to be adopting a new, provocative line on Kashmir with regard to India. For years, China kept up a careful balancing act between India and Pakistan on the divided Kashmir issue, even endorsing - on occasion - India's position. It is now depicting the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir as a sovereign entity."
• The rise of China and India [Guardian] "Over the past 10 years, the global balance of power tipped towards the east. China and India - which together account for more than a third of the planet's population - finally acquired a fairer share of the world's wealth and, on everything from economic and military power to culture and climate change, they moved to the top table. The G20, which includes these two nations, supplanted the G8 as the world's most influential talking shop."
• Is India's Media Promoting China Bashing? [Business Week] "During the last two-three months, certain sections of the media, both electronic and print, have attempted to create an anti-China hysteria. Cooked-up stories of border violations were flashed up. The campaign reached absurd levels. It was so ferocious that the government had to threaten the journalists indulging in it of legal action."

We've had a couple laughs over Somalian pirates before, but they've now taken a turn for the scary. It seems China's luck in dealing with them in the past has run out and it's now facing its first real crisis: Pirates have hijacked a Chinese bulk carrier in the Indian Ocean and are threatening to execute the 25 Chinese crew members if anybody attempts to save them.

After a manhunt involving over six thousand security personnel, three of the four escaped convicts were captured and apprehended in a raid today, while the last was shot and killed, says China Daily.

• Party Elder Still Jousts With China’s Censors [NYTimes] "For nearly two decades, the Communist Party strove to wipe out the national memory of Zhao Ziyang, the reform-minded party secretary who opposed the use of force against pro-democracy protesters in 1989. So when a former aide of Mr. Zhao’s, Du Daozheng, disclosed in May that he had helped secretly record Mr. Zhao’s memoir for posthumous publication, Mr. Du’s daughter refused to let him walk outside alone for fear of possible repercussions. She need not have worried. On June 25, a top official in charge of propaganda showed up at Mr. Du’s western Beijing apartment with a reassuring message from Zhongnanhai, the headquarters of the Communist Party and the government. Mr. Du said he was told that, as an old friend of Mr. Zhao’s, “Zhongnanhai and party central can understand why you did this.”"
• Olympic chief in ‘secret China deal’ [Times Online] "China made a secret deal with International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge to support his election to the post in return for Rogge's lobbying for Beijing to win the 2008 Olympics, according to an explosive new book by China's sports minister at the time, Yuan Weimin. The former minister says Rogge explicitly bargained with him to win Chinese votes at the Moscow meeting of the IOC in 2001, which awarded the games to Beijing and three days later elected Rogge as president."
• China corruption trial exposes capital of graft [Telegraph] "Huang Guobi lost her husband four years ago to gangsters who brutally dismembered him with machetes before beating her senseless. When she took the case to her local police station, she found it was run by the nephew of the gang-leader. As she worked her way up the Chinese justice system, pleading for someone to bring the killers to account, she found each level riddled with corruption. This week, however, 47-year-old Mrs Huang stood outside the Number Five Intermediate People's Court in downtown Chongqing, filled with anger and satisfaction. Around her, 300 other people, many with similar stories, stood waiting for justice to be done. Inside, the first trial of China's largest-ever criminal investigation was under way, the culmination of five months of police work that has turned the city of Chongqing upside down."

We've often accused Shanghai of trying too hard to emulate the other great metropolises of the world: London, New York, Paris. But it seems that, more and more, the city it will most likely resemble is Venice. According to a recent article by the Associated Press:

If you've been to Beijing, chances are you've been dragged to the Summer Palace at some point during your tourist rounds. Even if you've never been there, chances are you've heard of Empress Dowager Cixi's famous marble boat. If not, the story goes that Cixi embezzled funds meant to build a Navy to protect China from foreign invaders, and built an immobile boat out of marble for the imperial retreat. The Empress made her point, but since then the boat has become a symbol of China's underdeveloped Navy. Which is a reputation that China has been working diligently to reverse. And what better way to symbolize that turnaround, of course, than to build an aircraft carrier out of cement?

• Learning to drink like a local in Qingdao, China [CNN] "Another round of toasts and exclamations of "hajiu" sounded out around me. I took a sip and set down my small glass of Tsingtao beer as my new friends downed theirs and refilled. Our seafood dinner, perched on the single cluttered table of a tiny antique shop, was punctuated regularly by such moments. I joined in happily, although somewhat bemused, at each increasingly beery celebration of our host, the worldly Captain Jau. My company, a gathering from four regions of China, was engaging me in Chinese drinking etiquette, in the city of Qingdao."
• At Frankfurt book fair, only official China can show its face [NRC Handelsblad] "Censorship in China is the theme Dai Qing chose for her lecture in the margin of the Frankfurter Buchmesse, which opens on Wednesday. She was supposed to have been an official guest of the book fair, which this year has chosen literary China as its main theme. But Dai Qing, who is well-known outside China for her campaigns against political repression and costly projects like the Three Gorges Dam, is not welcome at the official event."
• Xinhua vs Financial Times [Danwei] "Two headlines from the home pages of The Financial Times and Xinhua, two ways of looking at the world. The Financial Times: US hardens stance on renminbi rigidity; Xinhua: China not currency manipulator: U.S. government"

Yes, the rest of the article clarifies what they actually meant... but what can we say? We're easily amused by the things we find on China Daily.

• When will scientists in China win the Nobel Prize? [UPI Asia] "Chen Ning Yang, the Chinese-American Nobel laureate in physics in 1957, remarked during a symposium at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2000 that Nobel prize-winning achievement will emerge from the Chinese mainland in 20 years time. I would like to pour cold water on Chen’s crystal ball gazing. Not only has China not accomplished anything close to a Nobel Prize, but also the time horizon for bagging it could be longer, if the country’s education and science and technology system continues to operate at its current standard."
• A North Korea that's hard to get to know [Danwei] "Premier Wen Jiabao was recently in North Korea to broker deals about North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Chinese media was there during the Premier's trip, and included in the entourage was Rose Luqiu Luwei (闾丘露薇), who is an executive news editor for Hong Kong's Phoenix Satellite Television. Rose Luqiu Luwei's series of blog posts came up on the liberal blog aggregator that she set up, my1510.cn, and her own Phoenix TV blog."
• It's tricky for wikis and online encyclopedias in China [CNN] "When Jimmy Wales visited the headquarters of Hudong.com last month, he had one question for its founder: is it possible for Wikipedia to be the number one online encyclopedia in China? "Absolutely not," was the response of Pan Haidong, head of Hudong.com, the world's largest Chinese encyclopedia website."

Taobao - the place where you can buy everything... even, it seems, babies. An anonymous seller put an infant up for sale on the online auction site yesterday for the low price of 1RMB. Of no surprise to anyone who's read of unwanted babies in China - this one was a girl.

It's finally here! On October 31, the bridge and tunnel linking Chongming Island to Shanghai will open. For all the 700,000 residents of Chongming and those of us mainland folks who venture there, we'll no longer have to rely on the iffy ferry service. Instead, one can get to Chongming from Pudong in just 30 minutes.

• Cracks in China's Great Politburo Wall [Asia Sentinel] "Vice-President Xi Jinping drops strong hint at big rift with President Hu Jintao Now we know what Vice-President Xi Jinping must have felt when he failed to make it to the Chinese Communist Party's Central Military Commission at a plenary session of the Central Committee last month. The supposed front-runner to succeed Party Chief and President Hu Jintao apparently blamed the supremo for not inducting him into the policy-setting military commission, which has been headed by Hu since 2004. "
• Tourists killed in hot-air balloon accident in China [Times Online] "A hot-air balloon has exploded and crashed in one of the most popular tourist spots in China, killing four Dutch tourists and injuring three people. The group of five Dutch tourists and two balloon pilots had taken earlier today to float for about an hour over the dramatic karst hills that rise up like verdant steep-sided sugar-loaf mountains around the town of Yangshuo. A local tourist official told The Times that the balloon ran out of control and exploded, but gave no more details of what caused the crash."
• China Consolidates Its Lead in Global Trade [NY Times] "China’s exports this year have already vaulted it past Germany to become the world’s biggest exporter. Now, those market share gains are threatening to increase trade frictions with the United States and Europe. The European Commission proposed on Tuesday to extend antidumping duties on Chinese, as well as Vietnamese, shoe imports. China is winning a larger piece of a shrinking pie. Although world trade declined this year because of the recession, consumers are demanding lower-priced goods and Beijing, determined to keep its export machine humming, is finding a way to deliver."

With the expo drawing closer and closer, we were excited to hear that the Hong Kong Pavilion was officially completed on Monday. Adopting the theme of "The Infinite City," the pavilion has three exhibition levels, each "highlighting a different aspect of Hong Kong's connectivity and creativity," says China View. The top level will "showcase Hong Kong's natural heritage and the way in which the compact urban cityscape co-exists sustainably with extensive swathes of greenbelt, wetland and woodland areas," and therefore the entirety of the third floor has been plowed into an indoor wetland park. Hong Kong will also model its multifunctional smart card as an Urban Best Practice Area for the Expo.

• Cheese, chocolate, banking, watches, and neutrality. All of our favorite things about Switzerland. Now we can get experience all of them thanks to the Swiss Chamber of Commerce presenting Swiss Week. From October 18-25th you can experience a whole week of Swiss and Swiss-related events ranging from movies, to books and food. [City Weekend]
• 1421 author Gavin Menzies will be visiting Shanghai to give a series of lectures about how China discovered everything and is responsible for everything. Shanghai Talk interviewed him. Read the crazy. [Shanghai Talk]
• In a continuing string of exciting new museum and exhibition openings, Shanghai Normal University announced the opening of a textbook exhibit that explores the history of textbooks in China since the turn of the 19th century. And we thought things had peaked with the fungus museum. [Shanghai Daily]

• China's class ceiling [LA Times] "China is the only ancient civilization in human history to have reemerged as a major force in the world. And Chinese are rightly proud of this. So why rock the boat? It is better to be ruled by boring technocrats like Hu who will keep things nice and steady. This is not the story one might hear from unemployed workers in the rust belts of northeastern China, or from rioting farmers in Guangdong province who have been pushed off the land by greedy developers working in tandem with corrupt party officials. Nor is this view necessarily shared by the brave lawyers willing to take on some of those corrupt officials, or intellectual dissidents who still get arrested for arguing that Chinese should be entitled to basic democratic rights. But it is the common line taken by people who benefit most from the current wave of fun, fashion and prosperity — the new urban elite, some of whom are pampered children of Communist Party bosses."
• What If China Had a Second Political Party Tomorrow? [The New Yorker] "On the prospects for multi-party democracy: If you had a second party alternative in China now, I think it would be an anti-foreign party. What else could you see as a platform to challenge the Communist Party, but to oppose the foreigners who are “buying up Chinese resources”?… There has to be a period of generally unfolding democracy. Not bang, all at once. And I think that will happen. I think it’s happening much too slowly."
• Editorial Dispute Threatens Caijing, a Chinese Magazine [NYTimes] "The owners of the magazine have recently come under pressure from some within the government to tone down or drastically alter Caijing’s aggressive journalism, people at the magazine say. Caijing’s managers have told staff members that they have been fighting to maintain the magazine’s editorial integrity. Caijing’s managers have been seeking to create a more independent publication by changing the magazine’s shareholding structure, seeking outside investors and pressing the owners to allow some employees to own a stake in the magazine. They also want a larger share of the magazine’s profits to be invested in new operations, including an English-language Web site."

A picture says a thousand diplomatic niceties. Apparently, so did Wen Jiabao when he met with Henry Kissinger yesterday for the inaugural China-US Track Two High Level Dialogue in Beijing. We're not sure what that means either, but here's a sound bite for you:

Naturally, we think that Shanghai beats Beijing in the better city competition, but here's some extra reasons why. The UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) has found Shanghai's air quality to be far better than Beijing's, an auspicious ruling ahead of the Expo. The blue sky index shows that Beijing's levels of PM10 particles are twice as high as Shanghai's.

It seems to be a recurrent theme in Chinese history that farming and happiness are linked. The ancient Poet Tao Qian wrote of the idyllic beauty of picking chrysanthemums and gazing towards the southern hills; everyone from politicians to students were "sent down" to the countryside to promote re-education in the ways of the land; and these days, you can even farm on Kaixin to ease the pain of your technology-ridden soul.

If you've found yourself commenting to your friends, family, or coworkers on the prolonged warm weather, you probably wouldn't be surprised to know that Shanghai's summers are actually getting longer by the year. A lot longer, in fact. Shanghai Daily reports that since 1970, the length of summer has increased by 50%, from a measly 100 days back then to a whopping average of 150+ days a year. So if you crunch the numbers, that means summer takes up more than 40% of the year.

The latest step in a series of drunk driving crackdown, new national laws have been issued to punish DUIs. Besides harsher restrictions on "light" penalties and a lowering of the legal level of blood alcohol content (BAC), the laws now say that people who are willing catch a ride with a drunk driver can face penalties themselves.

• Magazine's business chiefs resign [SCMP] "Top business executives at Caijing magazine, the mainland's most influential business publication, have resigned en masse, heightening speculation its ownership may change hands soon or that its managing editor and founder, Hu Shuli, may leave and start her own publication... Caijing general manager Daphne Wu Chuanhui and eight of her nine business directors have resigned, according to reporters briefed about the resignations."
• Can the Future of Western Newspapers be Saved by China? [Sino Tech Blog] "When looking at the Western and Chinese online newspaper landscape, many obvious differences are evident. There has been much written recently about the demise of the newspapers in the West as their circulation plummets and their online revenue models struggle to counter these losses in revenues. But what about the situation in China? Is the outlook as bleak? Is their similar trends and examples as there are in the US?… This is what I wanted to explore and understand more."
• Upgrade rather than cancellation for CCTV's concert series [Danwei] "The cancellation of CCTV's popular touring concert series, The Same Song (同一首歌), reported by the mainland media late last week and covered in this post, now seems to be little more than a rumor. The Beijing Times spoke to CCTV management and published a brief article on Saturday: 'Rumors have been flying saying that CCTV's flagship program The Same Song would be canceled after the National Day holiday. Yesterday, CCTV arts and entertainment center director Zhang Xiaohai said in an interview that no such cancellation would occur.'"

Over the weekend, Snow Dragon (雪龙), China's Antarctic exploration vessel, left port from Shanghai to go on its six-month long journey to the South Pole and back. It'll be the 26th such expedition China has undertaken since 1984. But this trip is different from the others thanks to one of the helmsmen... or more specifically, the helmswoman.

• Tony Blair: China's New Cultural Revolution [WSJ] "Yesterday, just a week after the 60th anniversary celebrations of the People's Republic, China kicked off its first World Media Summit. It shows how far China has come—and how far it has to go. First, understand the problem. We all know China is a nation of 1.3 billion people, but that is just a statistic. Think of how we regard the United States—how different California is from Ohio, for example. Then quadruple it. Think of trying to meld China's 56 native ethnic groupings into one cohesive state. Think of the disaster, not just to the Chinese, but to ourselves, if it fractured."
• It's China's world. (We just live in it) [Fortune] "You wouldn't think the men who run the oil-rich country of Nigeria would have much spring in their step these days. The nation is plagued by a never-ending guerrilla war, one that has trimmed the country's oil production to two-thirds of its potential capacity. But now Nigeria is in the process of renewing production licenses for some of its most prolific offshore fields, and there's a new player in town making the traditional oil powers from the West (Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil, Total) very nervous — and the Nigerian government very happy… CNOOC."
• How To Deal With Corruption In China [Forbes] "It happened to Coca-Cola on Sept. 14, to Rio Tinto a month before. Even the management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. has been hit. The Chinese government has now investigated employees at all three of those companies in high-profile corruption cases. At Coke, a bottling plant employee was accused of taking $1.5 million in bribes. When your company is charged with corruption in China, you have to worry about not only bad publicity but also running afoul of America's Foreign Corruption Practices Act and a Chinese government that is increasingly clamping down on the corrupt activities of foreigners."

What in the world is it with hysterical Cantonese-speaking ladies and San Francisco? First we had Airport Auntie, who threw a mega-fit in the Hong Kong Airport when she missed her flight to the Bay Area. Now we have this lady, who gets into a fist fight with an African American on a SF Metro bus. A FIST FIGHT

• Prepare to fight China, Qaeda figure tells Uighurs [Washington Post] "A prominent al Qaeda militant urged Uighurs in Xianjiang to make serious preparations for a holy war against "oppressive" China and called on fellow Muslims to offer support. Abu Yahya al-Libi, in a video posted on an Islamist website on Wednesday, warned China of a fate similar to that of former communist superpower, the Soviet Union, which disintegrated some two decades ago."
• Inside the Ring [Washington Times] "China's most senior military intelligence official, a veteran of spy operations in Europe and cyberspace, recently made a secret visit to the United States and complained to the Pentagon about the press leak on the Chinese submarine that secretly shadowed the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier in 2006. Maj. Gen. Yang Hui said senior Chinese leaders suspected the Pentagon deliberately disclosed the encounter as part of a U.S. effort to send a political message of displeasure to China's military."
• A Beautiful Life: Mean Streets and Meaner People [NYTimes] "It takes nerve to award Bai Ling a singing role in a serious drama, but nerve may be the one thing “A Beautiful Life” does not lack. Set among the mean streets and meaner people of downtown Los Angeles, this laughably clichéd dive into sexual masochism and hardscrabble survival replaces story with outline and characters with place holders. No wonder Ms. Ling’s breasts are the most animated objects on screen."

• Taiwan and China [NYTimes] "Taiwan’s position as a de facto independent state seems to be morphing very slowly toward the “one country, two systems” status of Hong Kong. The process is not irreversible but the sentiments of those of mainland origin in the governing Nationalist Party, along with the self-interest of business groups and a widespread sense of economic vulnerability are all pushing the island toward accommodation with Beijing. The trend could mean an erosion in the support Taiwan gets, albeit erratically, from the United States and Japan."
• North Korea ready for six-party talks - with caveat [Christian Science Monitor] "North Korea's new readiness to return to stalled international talks about its nuclear program - if prior negotiations with the United States go well - puts the diplomatic ball in Washington's court. "This is a test for the Obama administration's policy on North Korea," says Ryoo Kihl-jae, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul. Initial signs suggested that the US was prepared to pick the ball up. "We, of course, encourage any kind of dialogue that would help us lead to … the complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly."
• Internet Blackout in Xinjiang? What blackout? [Xinjiang: Far West China] "Greetings world. If you’re reading this note, then my message in a bottle has somehow made it from this secluded island I live on to the shores of your country. Xinjiang is still under complete blackout and there is no end in sight. As a result, my knowledge of world events has vanished and my sanity has suffered primarily due to the fact that we are the only westerners in our city and I can’t contact my friends at home."

Nearly six months after its first detection in Mexico, the H1/N1 virus has only now claimed one of China's own. The victim was an 18-year-old woman in Lhasa, the capital of the far western Tibet Autonomous Region. Admitted to the Maizhokunggar county hospital on Saturday with a cough, sore throat, and stiff muscles, she was pronounced dead at around 3:20AM on Sunday, says WSJ.

• Recession be damned! Shanghai shoppers spent more than 1.2 billion yuan over the past 3 days of the holiday weekend. This represents a 23.6% increase over last year. It seems none of us were able to resist the lure of deals, promotions, and other bargains that chased us around over the holiday. [Shanghai Daily]
• Although it might be a mess at the moment, some of that construction on the Bund is finally panning out - the new Pennisula Shanghai hotel is scheduled to open by mid-October. The hotel with combine Art Deco architecture characteristic of the area with modern luxuries. [Urbanatomy]
• Walking down the street with all of the traffic noise from the cars, buses, mopeds, old women yelling, and bicycles always manages to give us a headache. Shanghai is trying to clamp down on its bus drivers who are honking excessively by installing "horn-monitoring" devices that fine drivers if they are honking in a non-emergency situation. Although part of us is relieved to hear there will less noise, the other part now worries about getting hit by a bus even more. [Shanghai Daily]

• Exec: China's anniversary film set to break record [Associated Press] "China's star-studded propaganda blockbuster that marks 60 years of communist rule is on track to match the country's box office record set by the Hollywood film "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" in July, a senior movie executive said Monday. "The Founding of a Republic" has so far made nearly 330 million yuan ($48 million) as of Sunday since it was released on Sept. 16, China Film Group Corp. Assistant President Zhao Haicheng told The Associated Press."
• Can China Lead a Recovery? [Washington Post] "Chen Zizheng wheeled his shopping cart down one of the aisles at the Carrefour store near his house and paused in front of the bottles of Remy Martin, Johnnie Walker and Hennessy, each selling for an amount about equal to the annual salary he earned when he was a young government employee. But those days were about 30 years ago, around the time Deng Xiaoping launched China on a path of economic reform and opening up. Now China's thriving economy has made it possible for people like Chen, a 67-year-old semi-retired aerospace industry official, to plop down 1,168 yuan, or $170, for a bottle of liquor at a branch of a French "hypermarket" chain."
• Kim Jong Il Hosts Dinner for Wen Jiabao [KCNA] "General Secretary Kim Jong Il hosted a dinner in honor of Wen Jiabao, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, on an official goodwill visit to the DPRK at the Paekhwawon State Guest House in the evening of Monday."

• DPRK tells Wen it open to nuke talks [China Daily] "Premier of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Yong-il told his visiting Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao Sunday that the country was open to bilateral and multilateral talks on its nuclear programmes, China Central Television (CCTV) reported. "DPRK has never abandoned the goal (of denuclearising the Korean peninsula). We are willing to seek to realize this goal through bilateral and multilateral dialogue," Kim was quoted as saying by the CCTV."
• China Hopes to Create Its Own Media Empires [NYTimes] ""China plans to spend billions of dollars in the next few years to develop media and entertainment companies that it hopes can compete with global giants like the News Corporation and Time Warner, and will in the process loosen some of its tight control of these industries. An ambitious plan, set forth in guidelines last week by China’s State Council, envisions the creation of entertainment, news and culture companies with a market orientation and with less government backing. China, in short, would like to consolidate its industry into companies resembling Bloomberg, Time Warner and Viacom, analysts say."
• Obama's Meeting With the Dalai Lama Is Delayed [Washington Post] "In an attempt to gain favor with China, the United States pressured Tibetan representatives to postpone a meeting between the Dalai Lama and President Obama until after Obama's summit with his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, scheduled for next month, according to diplomats, government officials and other sources familiar with the talks."

With all the talk of National Day, we may have completely forgotten to mention how Shanghai celebrated it. Here's a good reason - it was rainy and gross. We stayed indoors most of the time, glued to the television screen and its vision of a sunny, beautiful fall day in Beijing.

Wow, what a National Day, right? We here at Shanghaiist were so enthused by the revolutionary vigor it inspired in us that we decided to say "screw it" to Friday and took an impromptu day off. But over the weekend, it seemed like everyone had an opinion on the October 1 festivities... and since we were hanging around mostly Chinese people, the opinions were overwhelmingly positive.

Shanghaiist compiles some of the more popular features and news pieces we collected during the month of September. Take a gander back and enjoy!

FOOD & DRINK


• Review: Carl's Jr. Burger Bonanza in Shanghai


• Review:Red Beat burgers slightly classier than the rest of the Tongren Lu meat market


• Review:Aura: Decent Italian in sweet surroundings for under 100RMB